But now Kirtland and Rossdale find themselves at opposite ends of a lawsuit filed this morning in Dallas County court involving the sale of Bush’s back catalog.

FIle photo

In 1996, around the same time Bush was hitting it big, Kirtland (second from right) and Deep Blue Something were celebrating their own record going gold.

According to the suit, Kirtland, via his holding company AOTL, wants to sell the catalog for unspecified reasons. The suit says that in the spring of this year, Rossdale said he’d be interested in buying back his music via his label Mad Dog Winston Music and his UK-based corporation Vineland Limited. On June 20 of this year, Kirtland says, Rossdale made an offer: $2.75 million — which, says the suit, is “less than half of the market value of the catalogue.”

Says the suit, Rossdale and his representatives “had no intention of offering a market-based or good faith price for the Catalogue. Rather, they intended to and offered a figure that was less than half the market value … Defendants are experienced music industry professionals. They knew or should have known the market value of the Catalogue.”

Rather than take the lowball offer, says the suit, Kirtland found another taker. The suit said that in September New York-based Round Hill Music offered to buy the catalog for $5.6 million. Round Hill bills itself as a “private equity firm exclusively dedicated to investments in revenue generating music copyright assets,” which is to say it places songs in movies and ads and TV shows and collects the royalties. Round Hill has some 4,000 songs in its catalog, it says, including offerings from the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Miles Davis, Bruno Mars and Katy Perry, among other household names.

But the lawsuit says that before Kirtland and Round Hill could consummate their deal, Rossdale’s people stepped in with a letter dated October 3. Round Hill representatives could not be reached for comment.

That missive, says the suit, “contains false, malicious, slanderous and defamatory statements threatening ‘swift and sure litigation’ if AOTL made any attempt to sell the Catalogue, disparaging and defaming the business character and practices of Plaintiffs Kirtland and AOTL, and falsely accusing them of unethical and illegal conduct.”

The suit says the letter caused Round Hill to back out of the deal, costing Kirtland millions. He’s claiming, among other things, tortious interference and defamation.

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